WINNING a battle for a village green may land pensioners with a £150,000 legal bill.

Villagers in the ancient Roman town of Caerwent were jubilant after an Assembly inspector ruled Merton Green could be registered as a village green on the basis it had been used by local children for nearly 50 years.

But last week Barratt South Wales appealed to the High Court and asked for £19,000 costs against the Merton Green Action Group. Now the group is concerned that even if judgement in the application is reserved, the housebuilding giant will take the case to the Supreme Court – where the total costs bill could reach £150,000.

One of the protesters, 71-year-old Adrian Spooner said: “It’s crazy – we won and yet might still have to find £19,000 or a whole lot more if it goes all the way to the Supreme Court. It will be catastrophic if they win because it would open the door to developers trying to do the same to thousands of village greens.”

Having bought the ground from Monmouthshire County Council (MCC) for £10.9m, the company argues the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 allows it to build any way, though the Action Group argues those provisions were effectively repealed by the Commons Act 2006.

The once-verdant wooded ground – left over from the former Caerwent military base – has already been turned into a building site for the first of 132 homes. Defeat for Barratt could mean reinstating the land and the company seeking its money back with interest from county hall.

Over two years, the Action Group raised £10,000 to fight its corner but discovered the land had been sold before it could get it formally registered as a village green.

Whatever the outcome of the legal action, the county council will now have the final say on the fate of the land with locals fearing councillors will be unwilling to hand back the £10.9m purchase price.

Barratt South Wales’ technical director Huw Llewellyn said: “Barratt Homes acquired the site in 2007 in good faith from Monmouthshire County Council following an appropriation exercise by the council to allow the site to be developed for residential use. The site has the benefit of full planning consent for the construction of new homes.”